Mexico City, Mexico - Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that a naval search has failed to find the sole survivor of US strikes on four boats that Washington claims were smuggling drugs.

"They didn't manage to rescue him," she told her regular morning conference.

The US Coast Guard had asked Mexico to try to rescue the survivor of Monday's attacks over 400 nautical miles from the port of Acapulco, which left 14 people dead.

The strikes brought the death toll to at least 57 in Washington's controversial offensive on suspected Latin American drug boats, traveling in international waters.

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The attacks have been slammed as "murder" by local authorities and deemed illegal extrajudicial executions by experts.

At least 14 boats have been blown up, but this week's attacks were the first near Mexican waters.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said those killed were "narcoterrorists." He did not give their nationalities or evidence of crimes.

Sheinbaum said she was pushing Trump's administration to agree on a protocol for dealing with suspected drug boats traveling in international waters, which would see suspected traffickers detained rather than immediately face military force.

"There could be a Mexican citizen, regardless of whether they are a criminal or not, on one of these vessels," she said.

Trump's campaign has previously focused mainly on Venezuela, branding President Nicolas Maduro as heading a drug-trafficking organization.

Trump has not provided proof of his claim, and the leftist Maduro accuses Washington of planning to topple him from power.